Stranger, Texas

The area was first settled in the 1840s. The community is also called Upper or North Blue Ridge, being linked to Blue Ridge from south of town. Stranger first started to grow after the American Civil War, being granted a post office in 1879. The most accepted story of how Stranger got its name was when a local blacksmith was asked what the naming of the town was. The response of the man was he didn't know, he just moved to the area, and that he was a stranger to town.[2] In 1884, 200 people called Stranger home. Four churches called the place home, as did a school, steam cotton gin, corn mill and a hotel. After that the population stopped growing and started shrinking. By the 20th century, the town was down to 107 residents. By the 1940s, only one business was remaining in Stranger, and only half of the 107 people that were there forty years before. In the 1960s, the schools closed and consolidated with Marlin I.S.D. In 2000, the population was reportedly 27.